Don’t use it often, & only when the obnoxious user is invading MY space & should know better *if they had any manners* Maybe, if enough of us defend our space this way, the obnoxious cell phone users will get the message & confine their inane prattling to private spaces, like their cars (after they’ve come to a stop, it’s to be hoped).

I enjoy watching their heads explode as they try to wrestle with the conundrum posed of talking to two people at once in very different mediums. I’m happy to report that almost always, they react as if I’M the one whose public rudeness is beyond the pale!

This in an America where “multi-tasking” is considered a high & valuable art, & almost as necessary as driving an SUV.

I didn’t adopt the moniker “demon princess” for nothing, though I do make an effort to keep my special powers under wraps. I share the tip in order that others can avail themselves of it when a really annoying cell phone user is using up valuable air in a public space. It works.

and i suspect that we will find down the road that these things truly are harmful to us.

in my conspiracy theory frame of mind this morning, i imagine that we have ALREADY found out they are harmful to us but have quashed the research so that AT&T, Verizon et al don’t lose any profits.

Er, in that case, the human race IS being overrun by aliens from outer space. Heha. Just a cranky demon’s opinion

(Judging from the conversations other people seem to be having in public, 99.9% of those using them don’t seem to be aware that their conversations are not only inane, but the fact that they’re taking them public demonstrates they don’t really mind broadcasting that fact to the world at large. The only times I will concede that they’re they’re both necessary & useful is in emergencies & the lost man in the grocery store looking for some arcane ingredient his wife asked him to pick up for dinner–say, milk).

Over 190 million cell phones are in use in the United States, with users often scrambling to another room, building or street to get better reception. As consumers, it is frustrating when your cell phone reception gets dropped or is too garbled to hear. But beyond “Can you hear me now?” is another considerably more important question:

Are the cell towers and antennas popping up all over the country - -the very ones that we depend on for clear reception and a wide coverage area — safe?

Cell phone companies also maintain that no risks exist from the towers. “There are no health risks posed by the towers. Independent scientific panels around the world have reached this conclusion,” said Russ Stromberg, senior manager of development at T-Mobile.

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A study by Dr. Bruce Hocking in Australia found that children living near three TV and FM broadcast towers (similar to cell towers) in Sydney had more than twice the rate of leukemia than children living more than seven miles away.
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Says Dr. Neil Cherry, a biophysicist at Lincoln University in New Zealand:
o

“Public health surveys of people living in the vicinity of cell site base stations should be being carried out now, and continue progressively over the next two decades. This is because prompt effects such as miscarriage, cardiac disruption, sleep disturbance and chronic fatigue could well be early indicators of the adverse health effects. Symptoms of reduced immune system competence, cardiac problems, especially of the arrhythmic type, and cancers, especially brain tumor and leukemia, are probable.”
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Biomedical engineer Mariana Alves-Pereira says exposure to cell phone towers can lead to vibroacoustic disease. “From what I understand, some of the complaints are similar in what is seen in vibroacoustic disease patients, which are people who develop a disease caused by low frequency noise exposure,” she said. Symptoms can include mood swings, indigestion, ulcers and joint pain.
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Dr. Gerard Hyland, a physicist who was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in medicine, says, “Existing safety guidelines for cell phone towers are completely inadequate … Quite justifiably, the public remains skeptical of attempts by governments and industry to reassure them that all is well, particularly given the unethical way in which they often operate symbiotically so as to promote their own vested interests.”
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According to the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center, “Studies have shown that even at low levels of this radiation, there is evidence of damage to cell tissue and DNA, and it has been linked to brain tumors, cancer, suppressed immune function, depression, miscarriage, Alzheimer’s disease, and numerous other serious illnesses.”
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According to Dr. W. Löscher of the Institute of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmacy of the Veterinary School of Hannover in Germany, dairy cows that were kept in close proximity to a TV and cell phone tower for two years had a reduction in milk production along with increased health problems and behavioral abnormalities. In an experiment, one cow with abnormal behavior was taken away from the antenna and the behavior subsided within five days. When the cow was brought back near the antenna, the symptoms returned.